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Brunswick (name acquired at the April 8, 1890
incorporation) lost the canal connotation after the flood of 1924 did irreparable damage to the waterway. Atthe same time the canal company was beset with financial problems augmented by the insuperable competition of the B&O. The canal deteriorated for lack of attention until the United States Government bought it for $2,000,000 in 1938. Even then it received little attention until it was dedicated as the Justice Douglas C&O Canal National Park on May 17, 1977.
old mill, which was altered and enlarged several times and lost to an arson-set fire in 1972. The lockhouse was 50 feet north of the lock. BRIDGES
The pivot bridge over the lock was rebuilt in 1869 and 1932, then removed in the 1970's when the present road was rerouted at the lock. The deck of the covered, wooden Howe truss, nine-span, 1,568-foot bridge of 1855-6 was near towpath level, and the canal was crossed on the pivot bridge. The nine-span, iron Warren bridge of 1893 carried the road over the canal. From 1830 to 1924 the canal hauled coal, grain, and lumber on a 93-foot boat with a capacity of 125 tons.
BERLIN LOCKS
Of the 184.5 mile waterway from Georgetown, D.C., to Cumberland, Md., Brunswick can claim mile marker 55. Lock 30 was built 55 miles from the tide lock in Georgetown and was one of 74 lift locks along the canal. Lock 30 was fifteen feet wide, 100 feet long and 16 feet deep. A nineteenth century boat was 90-92 feet long and 14 feet wide. The locks allowed only a six- to twelve-inch clearance on both sides of a boat. As with each of the other 73 locks, Lock 30 had an eight-foot lift. Someone likened them to giant steps averaging about 2½niles apart. Each lifted a fifteen-ton boat eight feet in minutes. The drop was four times faster, ten minutes for the whole process. Because cool, wei stones almost surrounded the boat, the descent caused the temperature to drop noticeably, as well as noisily and bumpily. The material of Lock 30's construction was primarily cut red sandstone from nearby Seneca, Md., quarries; facing stones of hammer-dressed granite from Patapsco, Md.; and hammer-dressed (ribbed) gray quartzite from nearby Virginia, four miles south of Point of Rocks. Records of the contractors, dates, and costs for each part of the structure have been carefully kept by William E. DaviesofFallsChurch, Va.: Obediah Gordon and Andrew Small worked on the lock, Gordon in 1832, Small in 1832-33, with a total cost of $11,694.51. The embankment (1832-33) cost $1,351.50. The waste weir (1833) cost $350; the flume, (1834), $175. Pivot bridge over lock (1835), $401, and Lockhouse 22 (1836) $365. Total cost was $14,337. This was equivalent to about $675,000 during the mid-1980' s, $550,000 of which applied to the lock. Fiftyyearslater,a timberextensiondoubled the length in order to cut costs of hauling: two canal boats in tandem could navigate portions of the canal. This cost of $5,500 was equal tp abput $175,000 in the mid-1980's. The original flume at Berlin powered the town's
A CANALLER'S LIFE
There's romance in imagining life for a family on a canal boat. Young children had to be tied or chained to the deck, with leeway for reasonable movement, but short enough to prevent falling overboard. Two or three mules made up the team that pulled the boat. While one mule pulled, one rested in the stable on the boat from the six-hour shift. The downstream current was two miles an hour, so the mules pulled no harder on a loaded boat downstream than to pull an empty back to Cumberland. The return trips were mostly empty. Some of the mule drivers were boys and girls, many as young as ten, some as young as six, according to personalcomments of elderly men who drove mules as a child. Children received little schooling, since the family was on the move from March to December. A lock tender earned from $100 per year to $75 a month, with house and garden. The boat captain earned 40 cents per ton from Washington. A laborer received $10 - $20 per month, with poor food, houses and medical care. CANAL BECOMES A PARK
One man can be thanked for his tenacity in trying to preserve the canal. After 1924, the canal was abandoned until 1954, whenamovewasunderway to make a scenic parkway of the canal for motoring along the Potomac. Conservation groups began to focus the nation's attention on the conflicting plans, paving or saving the canal. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court William 0. Douglas termed the canal "one of the most fascinating and picturesque in the nation .. .. A long
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